The Family of Max Theilheimer

Karolina Theilheimer © Stadtarchiv Gunzenhausen

Translated by Lesley Loy

Max Theilheimer, a trader, was born on 20.10.1873 in Dittenheim, one of the two children of Meier Theilheimer and his wife Mali Weissel. He married Karolina Strauss, who had been born on 28.06.1875 in Schöllkrippen. They had two children, both born in Gunzenhausen.
  • Ilse * 03.10.1903 in Gunzenhausen
  • Selma * 14.10.1904 in Gunzenhausen
Around 1906 Meier Theilheimer, also a trader, purchased the house at Spitalstrasse 9. On his death it passed to his son Max Theilheimer. His widow Karolina inherited the property at Spitalstrasse 9 in 1915. The town of Gunzenhausen acquired the property on 01.12.1938 but sold it shortly afterwards.
Max died in Gunzenhausen on 18.08.1915. His wife was declared dead in the Theresienstadt concentration camp on 23.02.1944.
Their daughter Ilse, who had married David Bacharach, a merchant from Treuchtlingen, was also declared dead on 04.10.1944. Mr & Mrs Bacharach had lived in Würzburg around 1938, at Weingartenstrasse 26, then in Kaiser-Wilhelm-Strasse C2 in Berlin. Ilse Bacharach “moved away” from there on 25.09.1942.

Selma Theilheimer © Stadtarchiv Gunzenhausen

Selma had married Ernst Hellmann, a merchant from Gunzenhausen, on 14.06.1938. He was sent to the Dachau concentration camp on 01.12.1938. His wife was registered in Würzburg in 1938. After his internment in Dachau they managed to leave Germany. The couple were registered in Valparaiso/Chile in 1946.


Source : Personal documentation on the Jewish residents of Gunzenhausen, compiled by municipal archivist Werner Mühlhäußer